Our day started out very early in Skagway when we had to be in the ferry line at 5:45am.
Here's a few shots of downtown Skagway before 15,000 tourists hit the beach.
I was the first one there and enjoyed seeing the cruise boats start to come in and I talked with other passengers and took their photos. Soon Tim2 arrived and he was followed by Neil and Tom as well as Dave and Rich who we met at the Hyder rally. It turned out that they took up my challenge to do the Skagway/Haines/Whitehorse loop.
Here's our little group just before boarding the ferry.
Here's the Malaspina who would serve as our trusty ferry for an hour. While this ferry is part of the original fleet, it's in really good repair (if appearances mean anything).
Even the GPS knows that we are taking the ferry.
Upon boarding we were given rail locations and got to tie down (while in retrospect it wasn't necessary).
Here's our group tied down. The ferry wasn't filled at all.
Once one leaves the car deck, one can't return until the ferry docks. So I took advantage of eating breakfast and we took yet another group shot. It was very scenic sailing down the fjord.
Upon arrival in Haines, they throw out a small line which is used to retrieve the larger line. I thought it pretty cool to catch the coil in the line being thrown.
To give some perspective of the size of the entry/exit door, see the motorhome about to pass through the exit door. The owner of this motorhome is from North Carolina and it's a permanent residence. He was very talkative and had been to Alaska many times.
Leaving the ferry we were welcomed to Alaska (even though we had never left) and took a little five mile detour to see if we could find some bears. We weren't successful, so we turned around and rode into Haines for a refueling stop. Dave and Rich said their goodbyes as they were running a faster pace than us and wanted to make it to Watson Lake that night.
We then started riding the Haines Highway with a goal of reaching the Haines Junction as our next gas stop. We rode along crossing first into British Columbia and then into the Yukon Territories. In my humble opinion, this stretch of road was among the most scenic I have ridden on in America or Canada. I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves. Mt. Logan was on our left (2nd highest peak in North America, and the road just went on and on with new mountain ranges around each corner.
We took lunch at Million Dollar Falls. This is not a bad view from my lunch table.
Here's Tom in front of the rushing water at the falls.
After lunch, it was more riding the Haines Highway. Tough duty, but somebody had to do it.
We took on fuel at the Haines Junction and then headed for Whitehorse where the goal was to see the Klondike paddlewheel boat. We arrived just as the last tour had departed but the staff allowed us to follow the lady who was closing up the boat. It was like getting a personal tour. Here are pictures from that tour. It was a very cool old boat and it was neat to get down in the bowels and see the restoration work that had been done.
After touring the Klondike, we went to Boston Pizza for an early dinner as we still wanted to ride to Teslin to camp for the night by the "singing bridge". We also took on bike fuel using the "green handle".
It took all my willpower to use a green handle as that normally means diesel.
Crossing over the might Yukon River was a memorable experience. The Yukon is one of the few rivers that flow north into the Arctic Ocean.
Arriving in Teslin, we set up camp for the night.
I was able to use SKYPE to call my wife and while I was online I saw that a friend who's in Belgium was online, so I SKYPED him and we encouraged each other with a 15 minute telephone call (Yukon to Belgium).
It was a great day for riding. The Haines Highway is simply breathtaking. The ferry ride was nice. The visit to the Klondike was memorable. Yes, we're living the dream. And we did a nice 392 miles.
Little did we know that we would experience the worst meal of the trip in the morning.
Stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment